Travel

What do you do if you want to really understand a country, to understand its people and feel its heartbeat? You can follow the rest of the tourists, or you can take the advice of Watergate reporter Bob Woodward's source, 'Deep Throat', and 'follow the money.'

Starting out in Lebanon, Kansas - the geographical centre of America - journalist Steve Boggan did just that by setting free a ten-dollar-bill and accompanying it on an epic journey for thirty days and thirty nights through six states across 3,000 miles armed only with a sense of humor and a small, and increasingly grubby, set of clothes. As he cuts crops with farmers in Kansas, pursues a repo-woman from Colorado, gets wasted with a blues band in Arkansas and hangs out at a quarterback's mansion in St Louis, Boggan enters the lives of ordinary people as they receive - and pass on - the bill. What emerges is a chaotic, affectionate and funny portrait of the real modern-day America.

From Peter Mayle, a joyous exploration and celebration of the infinite gastronomic pleasures of France.
Ranging far from his adopted Provence, Mayle now travels to every corner of the country, armed with knife, fork, and corkscrew. He takes us to tiny, out-of-the-way restaurants, starred Michelin wonders, local village markets, annual festivals, and blessed vineyards.
We visit the Foire aux Escargots at Martigny-les-Bains a whole weekend devoted to the lowly but revered snail. We observe the Marathon du Medoc, where runners passing through the great vineyards of Bordeaux refresh themselves en route with tastings of red wine (including Chateau Lafite-Rothschild!). There is a memorable bouillabaisse in a beachside restaurant on the Cute d'Azur. And we go on a search for the perfect chicken that takes us to a fair in Bourg-en-Bresse.
There is a Catholic mass in the village of Ri-cherenches, a sacred event at which thanks are given for the aromatic, mysterious, and breathtakingly expensive black truffle. We learn which is the most pungent cheese in France (it's in Normandy), witness a debate on the secret of the perfect omelette, and pick up a few luscious recipes along the way. There is even an appreciation and celebration of an essential tool for any serious food-lover in France, the "Michelin Guide."
"Here we have all the glory and pleasure of the French table in the most satisfying book yet from the toujours delightfully entertaining"
--Peter Mayle.

A brilliant wit once said that, "to most Americans, even though they have never been there, San Francisco is their favorite town". The existence of that belief is the strongest proof of the glorious vacation experience that awaits the visitor to that "city by the Bay", that "Paris of the West", a "diverse, beautiful and cosmopolitan city" that excites millions of visitors each year. It is truly "the favorite town" of America, and no agrees more than our author. Here is her thoroughly revised 256-page tribute to a massively popular destination.